Hasta La Gadget!

Smile, you’re on Vacucam! LG’s Hom-Bot (RoboKing in the US) was zipping around its own special playpen on the stage at the company’s IFA booth today, picking up the occasional speck of dust and using its dual cams to spy on bloggers and Germans, while also diligently avoiding a plastic family dog along its ten-square-foot cube of real estate. The bot’s Smart ThinQ technology enables it to interact with an Android or iPhone app, which you’ll use to watch a live video feed from its built-in cam, send it rolling to a specific point in the house in “Patrol” mode, or adjust settings. You can also log in remotely, assuming your Hom-Bot is powered up and has a WiFi connection. Official US and Euro pricing and availability hasn’t been announced yet, but an LG rep suggested we’ll see it in the €500-700 range (about $710-995 US). Cameras and interactivity are nice and all, but that’s a lot to spend on any vacuum cleaner. Today’s trade show sneak peek is probably the closest we’ll be getting to this pricey little vac, so roll past the break for some super action footage.

Continue reading LG Hom-Bot 2.0 Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner hands-on (video)

LG Hom-Bot 2.0 Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung took IFA by storm yesterday with its now-legendary “S Pen” (that Galaxy Note comes bundled), so it’s only fair that LG gets its chance in the spotlight with a pen of its own. The company’s Pentouch comes with a plasma TV in tow, and lets you do super-slick stuff to your productivity suite — you can mark up Word docs, handwrite URLs in the browser, highlight elements in your PowerPoint presentations, or even flick one of those little red balls of fluff in Angry Birds. $2,199 will net you a 3D-enabled 60-inch LG PZ850 with Pentouch TV — a non-3D model is available for $1,699, and there’s a 50-inch version as well, priced at a mere $1,099.

You’ll need to collect quite a few ingredients before you can get cookin’ here, including the TV, the pair of included pens, and a computer to pump content to your TV. If you’re planning to use the display with kids, a printer might be a good idea as well, so your little ones will have a platform to preserve all those on-screen sketched masterpieces (this thing puts coloring books to shame). Everything seemed to work as described (note: this isn’t a touchscreen, so you’ll need to use the pen), though the software did hiccup once while attempting to hand-write the Engadget URL. We see this being more of a hit for enterprise use, since there isn’t really any need to mark up photos or tap the screen to launch apps in your living room. Still thinking about taking the plunge? Jump past the break for a video walkthrough (yes, and yet another clip of Angry Birds).

Continue reading LG PZ850 Pentouch Plasma TV hands-on (video)

LG PZ850 Pentouch Plasma TV hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s this, then? It’s the Nokia 500, hanging out in the Vodafone booth. The 3.2-inch handset is awaiting an official release on the European carrier, which should be hitting around the October time frame here in Germany, according the rep we spoke with. Still no word on pricing from the carrier, but it was suggested to us that the handset would likely run €99 or less, on contract. We managed to get some hands-on time with the Symbian Anna handset, and can’t say we were all that impressed by the hardware on what feels like a relatively low end phone for Nokia, a company that has offered up some of the best hardware designs in the business.

The screen feels quite narrow, and the device itself a bit chunky. The phone has 256MB of RAM and a 1GHz processor, which do the job reasonably well, though the Anna interface will likely leave something to be desired for many smartphone users. There’s also a five megapixel rear-facing camera and an microSD slot — oh, and the rep we spoke with seemed particularly excited about the different color back plates, which will be available for the phone.

It’s not the most exciting phone out there from the Finnish handset maker, but for those looking for a relatively low-cost smartphone from the company, the 500 certainly gets the job done.

Nokia 500 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 07:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you liked the look of Dell’s inch-thin XPS 15z but are of the mind that a 15-incher isn’t quite portable enough, listen up: here at its IFA press conference, the company just teased a 14-inch version — the XPS 14z, natch — which will be available “later this year.” From the looks of it, it has the same industrial design as its big brother (and, some might say, a generations-old MacBook Pro), which, depending on your point of view, is either a good or a bad thing.

Dell teases XPS 14z, says it will be available ‘later this year’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a good time to be a stylus fan. Not only has Samsung debuted its handwriting-friendly Series 7 Slate and Galaxy Note tablets, but LG is also bringing the stylus into the living room with its new series of PenTouch plasma TVs. Available in both 50-inch and 60-inch varieties, each TV comes with a pair of Touch Pens that let you either control the TV and included software like a calendar and photo gallery, or simply draw on it to your heart’s content. As if that wasn’t enough, the top-end 60-inch model is also a 3D TV, and include one pair of active shutter glasses — it’ll run you $2,199, while the non-3D models come in at $1,699 and $1,099. Unfortunately, you’ll also have to supply your own Windows PC to take full advantage of that touch-functionality.

Continue reading LG goes big with stylus-equipped PenTouch plasma TVs

LG goes big with stylus-equipped PenTouch plasma TVs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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